Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Mary Holdrege HOXIE was a daughter of Benjamin Franklin Hoxie and his wife Harriet Elizabeth CLIFT. Her headstone is simple granite and lists her with her married surname and the year of her birth and death. Simple, right? Not at all.

She was born 27 Dec 1847 in Mystic, New London, CT according to the Denison Genealogy (p. 457). but the 1900 census lists her as being born in Dec 1848 which fits with this gravestone. She married Joseph W. Lambert on 7 Feb 1872 in Stonington and moved to Stamford, Fairfield, CT. Once again, the 1900 census indicates that they were married 27 years which makes the year of marriage 1873.

The Denison genealogy gives a reference code for who gave the information and this family is listed as Mrs. Franks Parcells [Elsie Post HOXIE] and Mrs. Frank Gilfillan [Harriet A. HOXIE].

Prior to her marriage, Mary is listed with her parents and siblings in the 1860 and 1870 census. I have not located this family in the 1880 census and that must be rectified as their daughter was born in 1880.

Finding conflicting data is quite distressing as it means that a "reasonably exhaustive search" is not complete. One small comfort is that this family has no descendants which gives us more time to find out about Mary, Joe and Nellie.

It is interesting how I begin to think of these long dead people, who are not part of my family, as people I once knew.